Contraceptives raise risk of breast cancer, shows study
Birth control pills
What you need to know:
- While the study suggests that the risk is still relatively small, it is a cause for concern in Kenya, where breast cancer is the second-leading cause of all cancer deaths.
- According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022, 63 per cent of married women are using a contraceptive method, with 57 per cent using a modern method such as female sterilisation, IUD, Injectable Implants and pill. Among sexually active unmarried women age (15–49), 70 per cent use a contraceptive method, and 59 per cent of these use a modern method.
Hormonal birth control methods may increase the risk of breast cancer, a new study has shown.
The study published in the journal PLOS Medicine analysed prescription records of nearly 9,500 women under the age of 50 in the United Kingdom and found that the relative risk of being diagnosed with breast cancer was 20 per cent to 30 per cent higher among women who use or recently used birth control pills with a two-hormone combination — progestogen-only pills or hormonal intrauterine devices (IUDs) — compared to women who did not.
While the study suggests that the risk is still relatively small, it is a cause for concern in Kenya, where breast cancer is the second-leading cause of all cancer deaths.
According to the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2022, 63 per cent of married women are using a contraceptive method, with 57 per cent using a modern method such as female sterilisation, IUD, Injectable Implants and pill. Among sexually active unmarried women age (15–49), 70 per cent use a contraceptive method, and 59 per cent of these use a modern method.
Last year in October, the Ministry of Health said breast cancer ranked second in all deaths caused by cancer. It also noted that about seven women succumb to breast cancer daily. “Breast cancer accounts for over 3,107 deaths, making it the second leading cause of all cancer deaths in the country. Seven women die every day in Kenya as a result of breast cancer,” the ministry said.
The study’s co-author, Gillian Reeves, who directs the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford, urged women not to panic and stop using progestogen-only contraceptives. Instead, she advised women to consider the risks and benefits of different types of hormonal contraceptives in consultation with their doctors.
“I really don’t want women to be seeing this and thinking, ‘Oh, no, I’ve got to come off the progestogen-only pill. There is this increased risk whatever you use in terms of hormonal contraceptives. These newer types that hadn’t been so well studied, what it does look like is that they are certainly no worse,” said Gillian, who co-authored the new study and directs the Cancer Epidemiology Unit at the University of Oxford.
Dr. Rachel Urrutia, an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said the new findings are consistent with those of other similar studies.
However, Urrutia cautioned that it is difficult to conclude with certainty that hormonal contraception raises the risk of cancer without conducting a randomised controlled trial.
